destroyed our city, slaughtered members of our families and dragged us a thousand miles away to this pagan land.’ ‘Pray for them,’ insists Jeremiah. ‘Seek their welfare.’ This word of Jeremiah to the exiles is possibly the closest we come in the Old Testament to the words of Jesus, spoken to people who felt like exiles in their own land under the heel of Roman occupation: ‘I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Mt 5:44). Is there enough emphasis on the Bible’s teaching